So today is national melanoma awareness day, and I just happen to have my yearly skin check up today. As someone who was born with extremely fair skin and who has been cut on more than 40 times in her life, plus one more today, I can tell you that this is no joke. Your skin is extremely important to monitor and take care of. NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO SKIN CANCER. Even those of you who can tan, can still and do still get skin cancer! Quite frankly, you don’t even have to be in the sun to get skin cancer. There are areas on my body that have never even seen the sun, yet tested positive for pre-cancerous cells. The sun just highly increases those chances. Here are some facts: * One person dies of melanoma every hour * More people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year in the U.S. than all other cancers combined * One in five Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70. * Regular daily use of an SPF 15 or higher sunscreen reduces the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by about 40 percent. * Only 20 to 30 percent of melanomas are found in existing moles, while 70 to 80 percent arise on apparently normal skin. * On average, a person's risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns * Ultraviolet (UV) tanning devices were reclassified by the FDA from Class I (low risk), to Class II (moderate to high risk) devices as of September 2, 2014. Please, don’t take this lightly, educate yourself! There’s nothing fun about any of this, but the precautions are absolutely better than the alternative!! ссылка #melanomaawareness #nationalmelanomaday #nationalmelanomaawarenessday #skincancer #skincancersucks #skincancerawareness #melanoma